Thanksgiving lunch, good preaching, too much at once

Our Thanksgiving lunch at work yesterday went very well. There were not a lot of people that signed up on the list to bring things but by the time the lunch was supposed to begin the table in the break room was full to overflowing. The area where we had set up for desserts was really overflowing. (All the home-baked goods went pretty quickly.)

The family that does most of our catering brought smoked turkey legs instead of the traditional turkey. I thought it was a great switch up and everyone else seemed to enjoy the idea. He must have made over sixty and not one of them was anywhere near the size of the turkey legs I am used to getting on a store bought turkey. I picked the smallest one I could find and still was not able to eat more than half of it.

Of the left overs, I took four of the legs home; besides what was left of the one I had been gnawing on. Mama was a little excited about the different fare. Victoria was very excited about it. We froze two because there is no way we can each eat one at a sitting. The dogs will enjoy the leftovers soon enough.

Last night at church we had a young missionary couple that is on deputation to go to Chili. He preached the service and did an admirable job speaking out of 1 Kings 19 where the angel tended to the needs of Elijah as he fled from Jezebel; comforting him with food, water and rest. The angel also told Elijah that “the journey is too great for thee.”

It was a good sermon about the Christian life being lived successfully when we realize that the task it too great for us. It must be lived as Christ lives through us. He referenced the adage that “God will never give us more than we can handle.” His response was that everything about this life spiritually is more than we can handle on our own. Truly successful Christians rely as totally as is possible in this human frame on the power of God moment by moment. I thought that was worth passing on.

I will be making final preparations tonight for moving bottle calves onto the farm again. It will take about four or five hours to get the things done that remain undone. In the midst of getting money together for the truck repair and the purchase of the calves – hopefully to be resold to a friend at church – Mama called me really excited over the fact that she had found a man in Decatur that had Hamp pigs.

He has one little female and three little males, recently weaned, and they were only $60 each. I had to slow her down and remind her we had not budgeted for buying pigs this month. That is in the works for January or February. She was disappointed but that is where we left it for the moment. We may still go meet the farmer and introduce ourselves so we can buy from him later.

The weather is supposed to turn nasty abruptly this evening. Oh, well. It is almost winter.

Milk calves, changes of plan, answers to prayer

Mama and I thought we had lost our contact with the dairy farmer in Windthorst since he was a little curt with Mama the last time they talked but it turns out he was probably only having a bad day. He called yesterday to let Mama know he had three cows in labor and would like us to get the calves if we still wanted them. We do not know if the offspring will be bulls or heifers but we are on standby awaiting his call.

There is a young mother at the church that wants two bottle calves and she and Mama have talked about her getting the first two we get. I am okay with that since we have made other contacts to get heifers and Tom (the Windthorst dairy man) sells only the bull calves. If that deal does work out we will set the money aside to get a heifer calf when the man selling them off of his nurse cows has some available.

He did call Mama back the other night after I was in bed. He told her that he had sold his last heifer calf that morning but that he would keep her number and call when he got his next batch in. He is a little further away; almost two hours, but it would be nice to raise our own herd. I only need five more since we already have Daisy.

Mama told me last night that Maggie had called and that she was not coming this year. I am not totally sure on the why of the matter but that is her and Aaron’s decision to make and I will respect their decision on the matter. It does change our Christmas plans a little but life will go on.

Cori and Nate are unsure if they will be able to come over either. Not being able to come would be a huge disappointment to Grant but again, life goes on. They are not sure if they will have a vehicle to make the trip since the little van is having problems. They are also unsure if Nate will be given the time off. Cori is going through a particularly rough time (physically) right now she we really need to pray for her.

I had play practice last night so when I got home Mama was cooking up a storm. She and I thought it would be best if she had ready the food items I was going to take for our Thanksgiving meal at work today so I could bring them in last night. That actually worked out pretty well for me. It was easier than trying to remember it all and get it all here in the little truck. The Flex is much cleaner; we do not haul livestock in it.

I got a call from Ernie Flores on my way to the church last night. I had asked him if he would do the tune up on the little truck. It has needed one for months and I have been hesitant to take it to a mechanic for the work to be done. Ernie is a mechanic but he is currently on deputation with the focus of getting to Mexico as a missionary sometime next year. He will be helping a veteran missionary in the town of Xalapa (pronounced Halapa).

I figure it as always better to give God’s money to the people whom He can bless the most. Ernie told me he would come to the farm and do the repairs on Saturday. That will be a tremendous blessing; and an answer to prayer. It is supposed to rain Saturday so we will move inside for the first auto service work to be done in the shop.

It is fun to see things work out.

Late evening, bottle calves

After work yesterday I stopped by the church to gather the rest of the metal that had been left by the roofers when they completed the metal roof on the house next to the church. The house is used as a mission’s house as well as living space for the associate pastor and his family. I had taken a lot of the leftover parts to the farm earlier but there were still a couple dozen narrow pieces left on the pallet they had been delivered on.

I took the time to take the pallet apart because I wanted to clean up the area where this had been sitting for some time and I wanted to get the two pieces of corrugated metal used in making the pallet. The two pieces I got from the bottom of the pallet are thicker than any metal pieces I have ever worked with. I am sure I will be able to use all the metal at some point in time, but those two pieces will be reserved for something special.

Anyway, it delayed my arrival back home for about an hour and the time changed combined with the shorter days put me back at the farm near dark. Mama had needed me to help her with a couple small things concerning feed so after I got the metal pieces placed where I will store them we took the flashlight and went out to get her chores done. It was nice to be out after dark working on the farm. It felt special for some reason.

I had to undo part of the work I had done for the pigs I was expecting to get when Mama and Victoria were at Trade Day’s last month. I took down one end of the pen so Misty could continue to use the shelter through the winter and so Mama could feed her as she had been doing through the summer. I can easily retrofit the panel I removed and we are preparing a place for Misty in the barn so we can be ready for pigs pretty quickly when the chance comes again.

I did find a couple ads on Craigslist for bottle calves. I think I printed out three. Mama was very excited about a couple of them. She got in touch with one individual who has both heifer and bull calves but the price is pretty high. They are cross bred milk line calves. He gets the bottle babies and puts them on nurse cows. He has fourteen nurse cows and they will feed out two or three babies each. He has a running business just reselling the calves after they are a week or two old.

Another of the ads stated that they have beef bottle babies; both heifers and bulls. Mama was the most excited about that ad but I do not think they called her back. I went to bed pretty early so I am not sure if she got a call after I was in bed, but she is looking for one. Grandpa said he found beef calves for one hundred dollar each in West Virginia but that is a very long way to transport them to raise them on this farm.

Even if the farms where these calves can be bought here are a couple hours away, they are still closer than the seventeen hour drive from West Virginia. Mama and I are only looking for four and if we can get heifers we will have our brood cows in a year or so.

That would be exciting.

Busy weekend, the last box, moving plans

This weekend was a pretty busy weekend; when is it not? I suppose it started with Mama meeting me in Decatur Fri day evening so we could go to Costco. It is about an hour and a half from the farm. Meeting me here saved me the hour round trip to the farm and back to Decatur. We knew that traffic could be bad and it was a little congested – being Friday evening and all – but it was not too bad. I told Mama we had $160 to spend at Costco so we spent $191. Then we followed that up with another fifty dollars at Sam’s – since that is on the way home.

Meanwhile, back at the farm, I picked up the trim boards we were going to use in the apartment last week on Thursday. All the boards were simple two by fours with slightly rounded edges so I had to route the edges to make them more like the trim I needed. In order to get that done I got out my old table saw and hooked the router to it so I could use the guide attached to the table to repeat the cuts for multiple boards.

It all worked really well; especially since I took the table saw outside of the shop so the dust it would create would not end up being spread over the entire shop.it was a good thing I took the extra time to do that because it did create a huge amount of dust.

While I was working on the trim I just felt the Lord tell me that I would have the table saw set up for use that day. So when I had dulled a bit to the point that I needed to start with another fresh bit I went into the old farm house to check to see if I had another bit like the one I was using. I did not.

When I went into the little closet where I set all my tools as we unloaded the moving van I looked on the shelf and saw a box that I knew contained a steam cleaner I had bought while we were in New Jersey. I had not opened it. When I did I found my table saw motor packed in the box with the steam cleaner. I was thrilled. I had the motor mounted to the saw a few minutes later.

The only problem was that I had lost the safety key that enabled me to use the switch on the saw. As I looked around I found an old pair of tweezers and I cut them to fit into the slots for the safety key. It worked perfectly. So for the first time since we left New Jersey I got to use my table saw – and I used it a lot. I had forgotten how easy it made things for me. Even Mama was a little impressed what I could do with it compared to the little table saw I have been using.

We all ended up quitting pretty early on Saturday but the trim was painted, several doors were trimmed out and sealed and a couple more boxes had been emptied and the contents stowed away. Mama and I are planning on taking the week of Thanksgiving to move our things into the apartment. We still need several items to complete the kitchen, but Mama is willing to make the move anyway –so am I.

I had planned on taking the entire week of Thanksgiving off but I have a new employee coming on Monday of that week so I will need to show up to help get her access to our systems and get her settled into her cubicle. The lady that she is replacing is planning on spending a good deal of time with her to get her trained on her new job so I will not need to be involved very much after the initial security clearance is complete but I feel I need to at least be available to the two of them initially.

It will not be too big an interruption to my vacation – I hope.

Sale items, a treasure hunt

Yesterday slowed down in the afternoon so I had a few minutes to look on Craigslist. I usually search for appliances and farm related items but yesterday I looked for lumber just to see what was available. I found an ad that was several days old but they listed some trim prices and other 1x4s that had been used as trim. The price was pretty good so I emailed the seller. They still had the items so I went after work to look.

I did buy them and I hope to use them to trim out the apartment this weekend. It is not top of the line stuff but it will do for what I need in the apartment. Mama is excited to have the trim pieces at the farm. I did not realize how anxious she was to get the trim done before we move in. Now it looks like we can do just that.

The older couple that was selling the trim also had a large piece of wood covered in Formica that was in the same storage building as the trim. They asked me to take it just to get it out of their way. I will be able to use it somewhere on the farm or in the shop so it came home with me also. It will make a great table top for some future project. The items were in Keller, TX, about forty minutes from Decatur. With the round trip there and back I got home pretty late; at least, it seemed late to me.

Cori was telling Mama that Nate got up one recent afternoon and went to the basket they keep on a bookshelf just inside their back door to retrieve his cell phone. It was not there so he asked Cori if she knew where it was. She did not so after some looking around Nate discovered that everything he normally places in the little basket was missing; his walled, the car keys, etc. It was obvious something we up.

When they used Cori’s phone to call Nate’s phone they tracked it down to the backpack in Grant’s room that holds all his ‘treasures”. I have not heard Grant’s side of the story but they, as a family, have been on a scavenger hunt recently with one of the church groups. They reasoned that something about that game must have resonated with Grant.

The boys were napping so any punishment had to be differed –and it is probably a good thing because Cori was pretty mad. Only she and Nate know the value or the necessity of the items Grant had hidden. To Grant they were just daily items like a spoon or a cup – but they were something his Daddy would look for.

Nate started to get pretty tickled over the whole episode and his joviality was contagious enough that Cori finally had to join in. I am sure there was some punishment administered later that afternoon, but I also assume it came with a lecture on the importance of the items in question and that if you are going  to set up a “treasure” hunt it is better to clue mommy and daddy in before you hide anything.

I did not get the rest of the story yet but I will not leave my stuff out when my grandson I here next month; there are too many hiding places on the farm.

Year-end stress, winter plans

Yesterday was a difficult day. I generally have the first hour or so of every day pretty much to myself. I try to ensure this time by getting to the office well ahead of anyone else. But yesterday, I got a call for help in the first few minutes after I signed onto my computer. It was 5:48 a.m. The day never let up from then. I was pretty tired when I got home from work. I was even more so when Mama and I got home from church.

The end of the year is always a crunch time for many of the projects we support, but this year there was a fairly large number of new projects added to my group and we are just now getting the feedback from the groups that have that information accumulated. We have to compile all the data and get it to the correct reporting agencies in time for their year-end reports. Several of my ladies are struggling to get the final bits of information so they can meet their deadlines.

It will all be over soon and we will enjoy our Thanksgiving holidays, but for the moment it is a little overwhelming to a couple of my staff. I only get involved when they get stonewalled or are treated so roughly that they call for help. Unfortunately, that has happened on a couple occasions. When I do get involved it usually turns out poorly for the offenders since each office tends to be very protective of the ladies that work for me.

Meanwhile, back at the farm, the temperatures are supposed to be in the very high seventies by Saturday so I may have to remove the windows we put up on the chicken coop so we do not overheat the birds through the coming afternoons. I will have to see how hot it does get before I go to too much effort but I certainly do not want to stress out Mama’s little babies. By the way, we are up to six eggs per day on average.

We let the cattle into the big meadow so they could eat down the alfalfa before it went bad. There was not a huge stand of alfalfa but they found every leaf in the field before they started eating the winter wheat; which is growing very well in all the areas where Grandpa over-seeded it. Next fall we are planning on planting the winter wheat in the two front pastures also.

Looking ahead to winter, we are better prepared this year than last. There is enough hay to feed out our little herd – and then some. We will still have to buy the supplemental sweet stock feed they like so well but we will make it through. The fortunate part of living here is that there will be something for the cattle to eat from the fields through most all of the winter, perhaps not enough to fatten them up, but enough to keep them satisfied.

We will supplement with higher protein feeds to help them stay warm on the colder days. They also know all the places they can snuggle into when the cold winds blow. Grandpa has us set up really well for feeding the cattle with a station he built into the calf barn. I will seal the walls off over the next couple weeks so they can lounge in complete comfort.

Whatever else comes up, we will deal with it as needed.

Cold snap, orientation, work load

The temperature at the farm this morning was 21®F. Fortunately the winds were calm so the effects are not a severe as they could have been.  I will ask Mama to check out the apartment and laundry room later today. The water lines we ran in the apartment will not burst if they freeze but I would like to avoid a freeze it possible.  It will be warming up into the low 50s by this afternoon with a light freeze predicted for tonight.

It is pretty certain that our growing season is now over. I think that is a good thing in most ways – especially since we do not have a working mower. The grass in the lawn (such as it is) was starting to get a little high and Mama is pretty anal about keeping it cropped short and neat. I was starting to worry I would have to buy a mower for one use this year. I still might, but it looks like I am off the hook for now.

Grandpa and Norman are running into some pretty good deals on mowers in West Virginia. If we do buy one there it will be early next year before we get it to the farm. The timing could work out pretty well but you never know how things like that will actually work out. In my mind I am preparing to buy a mower here next year, but I will be delighted to be spared that expense. The mower Grandpa and Mama have their eye on cost a little over $3000.

Mama, Victoria and I went to Bedford, TX (north Ft. Worth) last night for an orientation meeting with Baptist Children’s Home. With all the construction on the highways we were supposed to take we thought we were off track several times, but we ended up in the right place; and only a few minutes late. The timing of the meeting at 6 pm was a little troubling due to the traffic in the area.

 I am not sure how they could have done anything differently as far as scheduling the meeting, but without Victoria tracking our progress on her cell phone we would never have found the building where we met. The exit we were supposed to take was closed so we had to circle back in traffic and the building we were looking for had no real markings other than the address on a marquis. We will have to get the route down because we are taking training in that same building for seven sessions stretching over two months.

Finding our way out was almost as bad as finding our way there. We made a couple wrong turns but finally ended up on the correct freeway to take us to the roads home. It ended up not being too late. The meeting was over in about forty five minutes. After getting turned around a time or two we ended up back home a little before 9 pm.

It is a blessing that we are no longer in a hurry to get moved into the apartment. I have been out of money for a few weeks now, but more recently I have not had the time to work on the punch list items that will complete the work.

This week will be no exception. I have at least three days of work lined up on the farm. I do not mind doing the work, but I sure miss Grandpa’s help. He could work a little here and there and get most of these projects done while I was at my regular job. It always ended up being a real time saver for me.

It will still get done. It will just take longer.

Prep for cold, no horse sense

Winter is coming today; at least for a day or two. The temperatures are predicted to drop into the low twenties with winds gusting twenty to thirty miles per hour. No matter where you live, that’s chilly. In preparation for that Mama and I put windows on the open (south) side of the chicken coop. A couple years ago my Mom and Dad gave us a couple dozen old windows.

We have used them in various ways on the farm. Putting them on the chicken coop to cover the areas built into it for ventilation is one of the ways they get used year by year. I plan to use as many as I can on the hot house we are planning to build sometime in the future, but that may be another year out – two is the doors open for us to go to Australia.

I also removed the multiple hose bibs from the spigots on the farm. During warmer weather we use them to hook up multiple hoses to one spigot but in freezing weather they get pulled off and all hoses removed so the spigots do not hold any water above ground which would cause them to freeze and bust. That would cause me a good deal of work to replace or repair the rupture. It makes it a little more time consuming for Mama to fill the water troughs but it is an easy preventive exercise.

Mama called me yesterday morning to tell me that Misty was acting differently; like she was really struggling to breathe. She was not moving very much and she was hanging her head down. That is not normal for her. So Mama called Wes. He came out to the farm on his lunch hour to check the horse out. It turns out she has colic.

There are three types of colic a horse can get and the kind she had was from overeating grain. The two more severe types are less common but manifest the same symptoms. While Wes was there Misty went into her jumping and bucking fit and Mama told Wes how much that scared us. Wes laughed and told Mama that that was a horse’s way of showing how happy she was that someone was there to play with her. Boy, are we ignorant!

Wes went on to show Mama how to teach her some manners; how to back her off if she is following too closely, how to get her attention and calm her down when she it too excited; how to tell if she is mad or happy. He may take Misty and run her with some other horses for a while to teach her how to behave around humans and other horses, but I do not know if that was settled yet.

Mama mentioned that we may be traveling next year and she was not sure if Victoria could handle Misty on her own. Wes offered to keep her for us during that time and speculated that when we got back she might be broken to ride.

No telling if that is going to happen or not but it is a better outcome than I had thought possible only a day of two ago.

A busy weekend

I have to admit that it is nice to be back to work today. After the weekend we just came through it is nice to have the break. Mama, Victoria and I are all sore. Mama and I spent the entire day Friday going through the remaining boxes in the farm house. She was looking for her Salad Master cookware and I was looking for the motor for my table saw. (She found the pots and pans. I still have not seen my motor.)

All the while we were looking for specific items we were setting aside things to either put up for sale on Saturday or throw away. Believe it or not we did throw away a lot of items. We piled boxes by the dumpster after we had filled it completely up. Then when the trash truck came to empty the dumpster we filled it twice more as he emptied it for us. It was nice to get all the trash out of the way. We still have a  lot of things to sort through but it looks like a reasonable about of junk at this point.

We finished the day Friday by packing the trailer with the items for sale and moving Victoria’s table into the mobile home. After the trailer was loaded and tied down I backed it into the shop and left it for the night. I was not really worried about rain but we have gotten some very heavy dews lately and I saw no sense in everything getting wet before we unloaded it at Trade Days the following morning.

I am not very good with a trailer. I am getting better the more I do it, but I was still nervous weaving it into the mass of vendors already set up Saturday morning. It was a chore getting unloaded and set up but we did manage without anything getting damaged or staying too long in anyone’s way. Mama and Victoria were set to go by 8 a.m.

They spent the whole day there with the “merchandise” and I went back to the farm to work. I sealed up the tank and lines in the well house and I sealed the bottom edge of the well house. We are supposed to have some breeze days with nights in the high 20’s. I did not want to have any frozen lines if we could avoid it. Tonight I have to work on the chicken coop and the laundry room to keep the majority of the cold winds out of those two areas. The cold is not supposed to last long but I still need to get prepped for winter so it will be a worthwhile effort.

 I also worked in the barn making a place for Misty to have cover during the coming winter but I am not sure we will keep that spot open for her. She has been throwing some pretty fierce tantrums lately and Mama is getting more and more scared of her. I am not sure what I did to provoke the response but I she kicked me and bruised my hand as I was carrying tools over to fix the gate between her pasture and the calf lot. I was not a happy camper.

I have not called Wes – our horse whisperer – but I need to. I cannot afford to have an animal we cannot control on our farm; least of all a horse.

Mama talked with the man who can sell us bottle calves and he I supposed to call us soon. I have four stalls set up for little ones but we are still waiting to hear back from him. We only want the four. I have convinced Mama to go smaller with a longer term goal in mind. No more racing to riches by high volumes and high costs. We are looking for steady, manageable progress.

As far as the apartment goes, there is no urgency to get into it right now since Grandma and Grandpa are in West Virginia for the winter. I may get to finish it up completely before we do move in.

Time will tell.

Interrupted sleep, pride, off tomorrow

I was wakened this morning by the little Dachshund that Mama and Victoria recently “re-homed”. She is not happy with her confinement through the night. The cage is large enough that we can get the Great Pyrenees dogs in it but it is still not to her liking. So, at 3 a.m. I got up and put her outside foe the remainder of the morning. I felt a little badly since there was frost on the ground but I managed to go right back to sleep.

 When I got up at my normal time I let her back into the house but I put her back in the cage. I was hoping that a couple hours outside in the cold would help her to appreciate any warm place in the house; not even close. As soon as I closed the cage door and began to walk away she started barking again. In response to that, I put her back outside. I will get fussed at later, but Mama and Victoria will get a couple hours of undisturbed sleep – I hope.

Pastor preached last night about pride and what it can do to you spiritually and physically. He touched on several things, one of which really resonated with Mama. I have slept since then but I do remember his mention of the type of pride that masquerades as humility; when a person will refuse to do something on the grounds that they are not worthy when in fact they really do not want to do it, or are too proud to do it in the first place.

When someone will nurse a grudge about a perceived wrong rather than getting together with the offending party to see what can be done to straighten out the issue. When we go about our daily lives doing things “our way” regardless of the right or wrong of it, inadvertently wounding others – who, we think to ourselves, should grow up and get over it. When we cut somebody off on the highway so they will be the ones stuck behind the semi through the construction area.

Whenever we feel we deserve better than we have, it is because of pride. When we feel we need nothing of this world and give away everything to prove it, it is too often because of pride – especially if we have to rely on others to provide for us the things we so humbly gave away. I think of people I know who cannot hold a job because they know more than the boss, or they deserve to be treated better, etc. That too comes from a prideful heart.

I tend to be a humble person, but all of us have our moments wrestling with pride. There is little we can do to make others recognize it in themselves. We can only deal with pride as the Hole Spirit brings it up to us, personally. It was a good lesson.

I am taking tomorrow off (Boy, do I need it) so I can work on getting things ready for Mama and Victoria and their Trade Day’s sale on Saturday. I also need the time to work on the little truck.

Hopefully I will not break it worse than it is at the moment.

Play Practice, job openings, Trade days

Last night Mama and I had our first play practice where we were supposed to have all our lines memorized. All in all, everyone did well. At least the majority of us knew the majority of the lines we had and knew when we were supposed to say them. Mama did really well; well enough that she is encouraged to keep practicing. The play is set for December 15^th.

It was more fun than Mama thought it would be.

I put my name in the hat once again for the Licensing job and as it usually happens there are multiple other opportunities available in the same time frame. My boss forwarded a message that was sent out to the managers at his level soliciting applicants for four open positions in Houston. All are within a single group which will comprise the steering team for corporate training at ConocoPhillips. He feels I would be a strong contender for at least two of the four positions.

The only drawback is that all the positions are in Houston. I have to admit that if I was looking for the move I would rather move to Houston than to Midland but I explained to my boss that I am not really looking to move to Houston, or anywhere else. The draw of these positions is that they are all several grade levels above my current salary grade.

 At this point in my life, money is not my primary focus. It is however, an important driver in decisions of this nature. Having said that, if the Licensing job falls through and one of the afore mentioned jobs remains open, I would have to strongly consider it. My overriding preference it to take Mama to Australia for six months to a year, then return to the farm and complete what we started. Only God knows what is ahead and we do trust Him to keep us on the right path and in the center of His will.

Mama and Victoria are gearing up for Saturday. I am taking Friday off to help the two of them get ready. I have no high expectations of making money but I have added several items to the mix because I too have too many duplicated, unused items that have traveled in boxes across the eastern and central United States too many times.

Mama is hoping to buy two pot belly piglets at the sale this weekend. She has to have two because she does not want the pig to grow up lonely, or worse, to suffer some sort of identity crisis – thinking it is a dog or something else. I am not sure if that will happen this weekend but it is in her plans. It really depends on the seller showing up and having the color of piglet she is looking for.

We have been given a very good place in the open market so we will at least get a high volume of visitors; hopefully, buyers also.

Our Saturday surprise

Yesterday evening when I got home I was hurrying around a little because I wanted to get some work done outside the shop on the south wall I just put up – replacing a tarp with an actual wall. In getting it sealed against the wind I did not get it sealed against the rain very well. At the time I was not sure what to do to get it weatherproofed without it looking cobbled up.

Since then I was able to pick up some left over metal pieces from the roofing that was installed on the house next to our church. One of those pieces was exactly what I needed. Let’s just pray it is enough. I also set attached a piece of metal siding that was long enough to cover the top of the wall where there had been a little rain getting in when it blew in from the south. We will get a good test today if the rain that is predicted actually makes it to us.

Last Saturday I had intended to get Mama to help me put the insulation Grandpa and I had removed from the well tank back on the line and the tank. When we got to the well house there were several piles of poop inside. I remarked to Mama that something must have found refuge during the recent heavy rains. That something was still in the well house under the insulation we had cast off of the tank.

When I lifted it up there was a skunk sleeping under it. I jumped back out of the well house in case it was startled enough to spray me but it was groggy – as if I wakened it from a very deep sleep. So I went to the house and got my pistol. When I got back it was still in the well house in a very good position for me to dispatch it without damaging any of the parts of the well or waterline. It only took one shot.

Last night I went to the well house to get it out before it started to decay. Needless to say it had anointed the well house and the fragrance was pretty overpowering, but I got it on a shovel and moved it away from anywhere that would interfere with us working in the well house or nearby pasture.

Misty came over to see what was going on. She is a very curious little filly and will not leave a person alone if she is in the same paddock with them. True to form she was very curious about the shovel and its contents.

I was dragging it behind me to keep out of the smell – which seemed to wash over me no matter how I tried to carry it with the dead skunk resting on it. Misty got very close as I was dragging along and the skunk slipped off of the shovel. It stopped. Misty was not that quick and she rammed her nose into the skunk.
She jumped like a goat when she came into contact with the smelly carrion. She carried on for several minutes trying to get the scent out of her nostrils. She snorted over and over. She rubbed her nose on the ground several times. I think she finally got rid of the most noxious of the odor because she calmed down and resumed following me to where I deposited the smelly burden.

I can only hope that the rain and warm days ahead break down the carcass without too much more of that wonderful perfume gracing us.

A busy weekend

Friday ended a very long and fast paced week for me. I felt like I had finally gotten everything done when I completed my mid-year review with my boss. It went very well. I was pleased to hear him moving in the direction of hiring one of the contract helpers I have been trying to get on with the company since I started. I am also hopeful of getting an additional person to manage all of our electronic data sites. It is another big job I cannot manage within my current group.

My boss did suggest a particular job he thought I should look over. I had heard the job was open but I did not look into the qualifications because it would require a move to Houston. At this time I am not enamored with the idea of a move anywhere – although Houston would be the lesser of many other unpleasant choices.

So in deference to my boss I did go look. What I found is that the Licensing job has come open again. I do know that the Licensing job would not require a move on my part. I also know, because I asked last month, that they will not be hiring until after the first of the year. I will have to pass on the one recommended job and wait for the one I really want; even if I do not get the Licensing job.

By the time I got home on Friday evening I was ready to sit for a while. I actually did sit still for a half hour or so but then I got up and got going. There was too much to get done to sit very long.

I think this weekend Mama and Victoria worked harder than any weekend in the past. It started Friday evening with me moving boxes and furniture from the farmhouse to the shop. I am looking for the motor to my table saw – so far no luck. Victoria and I got several prices of furniture into the shop and apartment and as short as the distance really is it seemed to be quite far by the time the third piece was moved.

Victoria cleared a place in her room for a bookshelf and proceeded to fill it up by the end of the day; and there are still five or more boxes of books to look through. There is still one bookcase we have not found a home for but I am sure we will come up with something.

Things are being set aside for the coming weekend. Mama has rented a space at Trade Days so she and Victoria can set up all the things we have that we either do not need or do not want to keep. What we have set aside so far will fill the trailer I will have to load to transport the items for sale. Mama is looking forward to it; me, not so much.

I am happy to get rid of the things she is willing to part with. I just am not looking forward to the time and energy required to get things staged for people to shop through. We are both praying that the rain holds off for Saturday. That is the only day we will be there. I am hoping it will be enough.

Saturday night I asked Victoria if she was sore. I was extremely sore from all the lifting and carrying. She said she felt really good. It was a letdown for me; one of those “I really am getting older moments.” On the way home from church Sunday afternoon Victoria said she had spoken too soon and she was very sore.

That made my day.

A worthwhile trip, weekend plans

It was good to get home last night. I got to the farm a little after 7 pm having driven from Perryton, TX – about an hour north of Borger. I drove a little over 780 miles on this trip but all the visits I made and all the reviews I had with my staff were very productive. I have my own review today as well as the remaining two members of my staff to review, and then I will be done for the year; at least with that task.

I was able to go to the church in Dumas that Mama and I had gone to several months ago. At least a couple of the people there remembered me from the last time and everyone that did remember me asked about Mama. It is good to have a second church to go to when we are on the road. They too are gearing up for the coming holiday season.

They are doing something they call a Turkey Trot 100. The church buys one hundred turkeys to be given out to families in the community. It is up to the church members to suggest the families who will receive those turkeys. The focus is as much on encouraging a family as it is on meeting a physical need so any family, whether they are in need or not, can get a turkey from the church. I thought it was a great idea.

I asked Mama and Victoria what they had done in the apartment while I was gone. Both of them were a little slow to answer; not a good sign. Mama blamed her lack of activity on the books Victoria had found for her to read – so her evenings were too full to get anything done. Victoria took offence but did not offer her own excuse on her lack of effort. It was another very clear reminder of just why this is going so slowly.

This weekend I will concentrate on getting some winterization things done at the farm. There is a sizable list of items but through this weekend and next week I think I can get most of them done. I too, will not give much time to the apartment this week but even when I do not give it my full attention, I will still clean up the floors and get the cabinets finally set.

I was very disappointed last week when I tried to put the doors on the cabinet we bought for the sink. The cabinet and sink are from IKEA and the hinges to mount the doors require a specific type of screw. I could not find those screws; hence, I could not mount the doors. I did not exhaust myself looking because in the midst of so many little projects it is impossible to tell just where they had been placed while waiting on the drain lines for the sink to be done.

Lee Davis, the plumber who goes to church with us, was able to get the drain line done in about fifteen minutes. I had worked on it about three hours one evening before I gave up. He produced one part that I did not have in the basket of parts I had been using to accomplish the same task. All the leftover parts will be added to the accumulation of parts I have already accumulated; for future plumbing jobs.

On a farm, you can never tell when you might need them.